


Emma's Gift

by chipperdyke



Series: The Light and the Dark [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 14:50:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11106840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chipperdyke/pseuds/chipperdyke
Summary: The first few years of our ladies' daughter's life.





	Emma's Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little writing exercise before S7 gets going. Set after The Dark One's Desire.
> 
> Emma is dead.

Marie remembered clearly the second night after her birth. Her mother had fallen asleep, finally, in bed, and from Marie’s crib Emma had taken her on a tour of the stars. They were both wrenched back to the crib by the discomfort of a wet diaper. When Marie cried, Emma went into Henry's room and pulled his blankets onto the ground. Regina barely stirred as Henry stumbled out of bed to change Marie's diaper, and then he sat with Marie and rocked her, until he fell asleep and Marie was left watching his face. Emma cried as she watched them there. Emma cried a lot, after Marie was born.

Everyone did. When Regina held Marie at night, Emma put her arms around them both. Emma would tell Marie to be Regina's guardian angel, although Marie didn't know how to do that and Emma eventually stopped saying it, unless Marie was throwing a fit, and Marie ignored her then. Emma would walk endless paces around Marie's room with Regina, and when the walk turned into a swaying dance she'd take the steps with Regina. When Regina cried, Emma made faces at Regina and Marie to make Marie laugh, and Marie put her tiny hands on Regina's face, which always made Regina smile.

When the day turned into night, Emma stopped hovering by the periphery and took over from Regina and Henry, although Marie discovered early that Emma couldn't touch her. That was pretty much all she couldn't do, and she could do much more than Regina or Henry could. Emma could hear Marie's thoughts, while Regina and Henry ignored her. Eventually Marie learned their language and that was less of a problem, but in the first months it was a constant guessing game.

Emma could take Marie to watch the meetings of powerful diplomats, to check on terrorists, and to ride on Space Mountain as many times as Marie wanted. With Emma, Marie learned everything she could do, and what she shouldn't do. She only used magic when Emma said she could. Marie didn't know what would happen if she broke that rule, and she never wanted to find out. For a long time, Marie thought that she got her magic from Emma, or that when she tried to do magic, it was Emma that made it happen.

When she was one year old, Marie found out that Regina and Henry couldn't see Emma. Regina had begun to follow Marie's eyes to Emma, and then one day Marie toddled away from Regina, reaching for Emma, and fell. Regina gathered her in her arms and when she stopped crying asked her, “What do you see, Marie? Who is that?”

Emma said her own name, _Emma, Emma,_ and Marie repeated it, “Em.”

Regina reached out, and her hand passed through Emma. Marie’s hand had never done that - when Marie reached for Emma, Emma dodged her. But Emma grabbed for Regina's hand and let it pass through her arm and torso. From then on, Regina followed Marie’s eyes eagerly, like if she looked enough times she'd see Emma, too.

It didn't mean anything more than that Emma was invisible, until when Marie was three, she found out that Emma was dead. Granny had whispered about it with August Booth, and Marie overheard from across the cafe and turned straight to Regina. “Emma not _dead_ ,” she'd told Regina.

Normally Emma didn't say anything while Marie was talking to other people, and Emma waited while Regina arranged the cutlery at the table. When Regina reached across the booth and lined up the fork and knife in front of her, Emma laughed, eyes sparkling at Regina.

“She is,” Regina said finally. “She died the day you were born.”

“ _Not_ ,” Marie told her. How could Regina not understand this? Emma had been there for every waking moment of Marie's life, and Marie did not sleep. Emma had taught Marie how to talk, and how to turn on the TV from her crib, how to wake Henry up when Regina hadn't slept enough the night before, how to hold her breath when she was frustrated at night from being trapped in her crib.

“Where is she, Marie?” Regina had stopped tracking Marie's gaze months ago, started walking through Emma like she had before Marie told her about her. So Regina didn't know where Emma was right now.

“There.” Marie pointed across the booth.

Regina looked toward where Marie pointed, and then turned back to Marie. “She - Henry said - do you see anyone else?”

Marie looked around the cafe with wide eyes. There were lots of people.

“A man with dark skin and curly hair named Merlin? Or a man with golden skin and long hair, named Rumplestiltskin?”

Marie shook her head.

“Emma is a… a guide to you, Marie. She's connected to Excalibur. It's not really Emma, just a ghost.”

Emma winced, and Marie asked her, _You're not really Emma?_ It didn't make sense. Regina was wrong.

“Regina is rarely wrong. Listen to her, Marie.”

After that, Emma stayed farther away from Marie. She never sat at the booth with them any more. When they were in the house, Emma was in a different room. Marie only talked to Emma at night, when they explored the world together.

When she was four, after Henry left for college, Marie figured out that Emma was dead because of her. If Emma wasn't real - if Emma was only her guide - then it had been Marie and not Emma that told Mary Margaret about the trap in the Black Fairy's realm. Marie could remember that, just like she remembered every day after she'd been born. In that possible future, the one they'd seen together, Emma had returned to Regina. She hadn't died, not fighting the Black Fairy. So it was Marie who had killed Emma, who had brought such sadness to Regina and Henry.

Emma knew that Marie had figured this out, and Emma couldn't say anything to convince Marie otherwise, although she tried. She told Marie that she was fated to die, that even if it hadn't been with the Black Fairy, it would have been some other time, in some other battle.

_What if I had fought the Black Fairy with you, Emma?_

“She had my heart. You couldn't have stopped her from crushing it, even if you'd fought her, too.” Emma sat with Marie on the front porch of the mansion. Marie’s legs dangled off the rocking chair, and Emma had her legs crossed in the other chair.

 _But Regina and I fought her the first time,_ Marie pointed out. _When Hook stabbed her with Excalibur, that's when you lived, that's why you won._

“And we didn't have Excalibur. You were born too late to help, this time. But I would have died anyway.”

 _You'd still be alive right now,_ Marie said, kicking her legs despondently.

Emma didn't have an answer for that, except, “It wouldn't have mattered. Any time to die is too early. Your mom made me into the Savior, and once I was the Savior it was already too late. And I'm glad she did. If she hadn't, you would never have been born. This was better. Isn't it better to have Regina?”

_I want both of you._

“You have both of us.”

They _want you. Mom wants you._

“And they have you, Marie.” Emma seemed to realize what she'd said, that Marie would have to both herself and Emma Swan, on top of being enough to make up for what she'd done. “You're all that Regina needs now, you know. She loves you. You're my… my gift to her.”

Marie nodded. It wasn't easy being a gift. But everybody had their problems.

She checked on Regina, who was baking a horrifying conglomeration of vegetables and halfway through a bottle of wine. “All right, Ma,” she said out loud to Emma, trying to stay cheerful.

“Let's get that wine away from her, huh, kid?” Emma said, and Marie turned around in the chair and dropped to the ground.

“Come on,” Marie said. “You put it in the sink. I'll distract her.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Emma agreed, and she got the door for Marie and followed her inside.


End file.
